When is it time to get out?

My only fear is that the time to get out is last week.

I say if you can find a job in a stable company, why let some manager eventually make the decision based on who knows what whether you stay or go?

 

moddy,

You loved your job.

I like what I do and would like to stick around and move up the ladder. I also am not married to this industry and wouldn't shed a tear if I found a better situation in a different field.

I also see where technology and corporate-think is leading the industry, and whether it's because the stockholders scream for 20,000 heads or because my job is being outsourced to corporate HQ or Timbucktu, I don't want to be caught by surprise.

Maybe that's why I bought What Color Is Your Parachute a few weeks back....

 

I always get the, "There'll always be a place for good journalists in this industry" speech. Anyone else?

 

When was it time to get out?


(fixed)

 

I'm sure they're giving that speech in Los Angeles, Orlando, Baltimore, Tampa, Hartford, Milwaukee... Did I forget anyone from the latest group?

 

Yeah, I know. My sports editor is a supreme optimist. He's also a guy who would do this for free if they asked him to. He just couldn't imagine doing anything else for a living, and I think he has a difficult time understanding why anyone else would want to, either.

I think until people actually see it happen at their place, until they have to be the one to deliver the bad news to somebody, it still seems like it's someone else's problem.

 

I like the, "Well, in how many other jobs to you get to go to NFL games and get paid for it?"

It makes me want to punch him in the face...

 

Beer vendors, concession stands cashiers, ushers ... yeah, it's sound logic

But, yeah, I get that, too. More from people outside of the business than inside. The travel thing is the other one - "You get to go to all these places."

 

I get to go to all these places and miss my wife and kids and spend hours and hours in airports and work on Christmas...

 

Agate,

I think knowing when to leave is all about how much uncertainity you can handle. It's gonna be one hell of a bumpy ride for the next few years until we figure out how to make enough money off the web to support journalism again. People with more mettle than me aren't fazed by it.

I decided it was time to get out a year ago. My wife is also a journalist. We're fairly young and want to start a family soon. The idea that both of us could get laid off -- or go for a considerable amount of time without raises on our barely-making-as-much-as-a-first-year-teacher salaries -- really started to weigh on me. For finanical stability, one of us was going to have to make a change and leave a job we both loved. We both spent a lot of time thinking about what other careers might interest us. For me there was one that I seemed well suited for and almost as interested in as journalism. Now I'm back in school to make that career change.

It's been 100 percent worth it. I miss reporting the news terribly. I don't miss worrying about whether I'm going to have a job in five years. Or sooner.

 

Don't you agree that sometimes it feels like you're trying to leave "The Firm." Or when Chandler and Ross tried to quit the gym.